The Human Brochure

John and I are in Canberra, the national capital of Australia as part of a remarkable new marketing campaign to promote Canberra as a travel destination. Ian Hill, director of Australian Capital Tourism welcomed the first group of 250 (out of more than 30,000 applicants) at the Australian War Memorial last night.

He told us that we were on the edge of a shift in how marketing will evolve from traditional to trusted recommendations and that’s where we all fit in.

Today we’re off to Capital Wines. Who knew that wine has been made near Canberra for over 150 years? I certainly didn’t. I’m looking forward to some fantastic food paired with brilliant wines. I’ve been starving myself since breakfast a few minutes ago.

Once lunch is over, around 2 this afternoon, we’ll head to the Australian National Gallery of Art and more goodies. I will probably gain an extra 5 pounds over this weekend but honestly, it’s 5 pounds well earned. Everything has been so good.

Last night at the War Memorial we had mini pancakes topped with delicious caramelized onions, delicious lamb chops, perfectly cooked chicken satay sticks. I was so full by the time we got back to the hotel and in our room was a snack pack of energy bars, apples and two boxes of chocolates. Anyone on this trip who goes home hungry has no excuse!

There are 4 groups from different categories of interest. Obviously I’m in the food and wine group but there is an adventure group, family fun group and an arts and culture group.

Everyone was at the War Memorial last night and there wasn’t one kid who was a pain in the ass. Not one. Everyone was talking about what a beautiful experience it was to share with children.

If I don’t visit you until Monday, it’s because I just haven’t had time. Too much eating to do.

The only thing we’re asked to do for #humanbrochure is to let people know how we enjoyed Canberra. They haven’t asked us to be positive, only honest about our experience. There have been those pooh poohing this event saying nobody will be honest but I doubt anyone in this group would have any loyalty to anyone but their readers. John and I think it’s a really clever idea.

I hope they can keep the momentum growing after we go home so that this sort of marketing continues. What a great way to encourage others to include Canberra in their destination planning for Australia. I love Canberra. It was designed by an American, it’s brilliantly easy to find your way around, everything is as neat as a pin and people are incredibly friendly. There’s something for every human to enjoy and beautiful buildings.

I’m so glad you’re doing this. I think it’s the way forward for advertising – hand it over to the bloggers! Sounds like a great meal but I do hop you were also able to tour the War Memorial. It should be compulsory for every Australian to go there xx

Hello Maureen 🙂 I’m so jealous that you’re at the Human Brochure event in Canberra ~ I’d love to go! I’ve just came back from traveling to Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and have realised our country has so much to offer ~ and people really need to explore it more 😀

Hi Daisy and terrific to meet you. I couldn’t agree with you more however I will admit that the Gold Coast isn’t my favorite spot. Because I’m also American it’s a city without an Australian soul for me. It’s like Daytona Beach 🙂

It’s a brilliant idea! When I travel the first thing I do is go to Trip Advisor to read what other people have to say about a destination.
Look forward to hearing all about it when you return. Then you’ll have a couple of days to starve before EDB!

What a fantastic trip! I loved the look of the waffles, and your comment that you were starving yourself ready for the food to come (but breaky was just 5 mins previous) lol!! I know I always research holidays, restaurant, wines and places in general on the Internet! I can’t remember the last time I went to a travel agent or picked up a brochure. Even when I am not planning a holiday I bookmark pages of interest that other blogger have written about. It is good that marketing is catching up! I can’t wait to read more!

It took me til 2am last night to catch up on my mails. For some reason our laptop wouldn’t connect to our home mail server so I had nearly 650 emails to troll through, sites to visit, comments to answer, guest post to write.. we had soup from a can for dinner last night. How bad is that? We had it with homemade garlic and chive bread though. I found time for that.

Have a great time! He hee 5lbs… I can easily gain weight and very hard to lose those weight…but depending on food I will temporary forget about it and enjoy. Those waffles look good. Haven’t had them for a while and wish I can eat them now. 🙂

hm… I have been trying to convincethe local tourism deparment here and even in my hometown in Austria to do marketing in this direction, but in goa and even in my local town they lack the vision. Especially my town in europe seems to be lost in the idea of the traditional marketing, they don’t realize the size and capability of the online world!

It was fabulous to meet you in Canberra. Didn’t they show us a good time? Those little lemon tarts were a highlight of the War Memorial evening for me. What a treat. It’s the first time I’ve ever seem my children unable to eat any more. They were in heaven:)

It was a fabulous time and I think we did the Sunshine Coast proud. I’ve nearly got my post finished. Trying to work and blog and get ready for a food blogging conference next weekend has me going nuts. 🙂

What an incredible experience, and they couldn’t have selected a more perfect personality for the category; you will certainly tell it like it is!
I’d love to visit, on my bucket list. For sure. Can’t wait to see the next post.

What an incredible trip! I am going to have to visit the wine shop to find some wine from Canberra now. =) I did not visit Canberra during my Australian adventure, but you can bet I will when I come back!